Wentworth

Sydney Eastern Suburbs

Very Safe Liberal 18.9%

MP

Malcolm Turnbull since the 2004 election. Prime Minister.

Profile

Wentworth is in Sydney's eastern suburbs and is the country's second smallest and densely populated electorates. It covers 38 square kilometres, including some of the country's most exclusive and expensive real estate. It covers the South Head peninsula and nearby suburbs to the south and west. Main centres include Darling Point, Double Bay, Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Paddington, Centennial Park, Bondi Beach and Bondi Junction. (Map)

Redistribution

Wentworth loses some of its more bohemian districts with Woolloomooloo, Potts Point, Kings Cross and most of Darlinghurst transferred to Sydney. As a result the Liberal two-party preferred margin rises from 17.7% to an estimated 18.9%.

Background

Wentworth has existed as a safe non-Labor electorate since Federation. It is named after one of the early champions of colonial conservatism, William Charles Wentworth. Wentworth did more than most to achieve self-government for New South Wales, though the robust liberal democracy that quickly developed was not the ordered society that he would have preferred. Earlier in life Wentworth travelled with Blaxland and Lawson to become the first Europeans to cross the Blue Mountains in 1813.

Unlike conservative North Shore electorates, Wentworth has been represented by a string of high profile senior Liberal MPs. These have included Eric Harrison (1931-56), Les Bury (1956-74), Bob Ellicott (1974-81), Peter Coleman (1981-87) and Dr John Hewson (1987-95).

Hewson was succeeded by Andrew Thomson, the son of five-time British Golf Open winner Peter Thomson. Thomson, briefly served as Tourism minister in the first term of the Howard government. He was defeated in a pre-selection ballot for the 2001 election by Peter King, who was in turn was rolled by Malcolm Turnbull ahead of the 2004 election.

Turnbull's coup against King was spectacular in its execution, as hundreds, indeed thousands of new members signed up to local Liberal Party branches. Urged on by Liberal Monarchists, for whom Malcolm Turnbull was the devil incarnate, King contested the 2004 election as an Independent, but only finished third with 18% of the vote.

King's candidacy had cut the Liberal margin in Wentworth, and new boundaries before the 2007 election cut Turnbull's margin to just 2.5%, but Wentworth proved to be one of the very few seats in Australia to swing to the Liberal Party at the 2007 election. Wentworth recorded a further 11% swing to Turnbull at the 2010 election, one of the largest swings in the country, another 2.9% added to the Liberal margin in 2013.

Past Election Results

Year

Winning Party

1972

LIB

1974

LIB

1975

LIB

1977

LIB

1980

LIB

1981By

LIB

1983

LIB

1984

LIB

1987

LIB

1990

LIB

1993

LIB

1995By

LIB

1996

LIB

1998

LIB

2001

LIB

2004

LIB

2007

LIB

2010

LIB

2013

LIB

Coloured tab indicates seat won by a party forming government

Changing Boundaries

The various configurations of Wentworth's boundaries over the last four decades can be followed using the map below.

2016 Ballot Paper (8 Candidates)

Candidate Name

Party

TOBOREK Dejay

The Greens

XING Peter

Science Party

ACKROYD Anthony Michael

The Arts Party

THOMAS Beresford

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

ALLEN David

Independent

TURNBULL Malcolm

Liberal

HUGHES Evan

Labor

AUSSIE-STONE Marc

Independent

Candidates

Dejay Toborek

The Greens

Toborek, is an active member of the Sydney performing arts and theatre industry. He studied for music scholarship at Perth Modern School before going on to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Dance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University, Perth. Over the past 15 years he has been an activist on issues such as environmental and heritage conservation, climate change, animal rights, refugees, marriage equality, indigenous rights, GLBTQI rights, public education, renewable energy, plastic waste and fossil fuels. He has lived in Wentworth for 14 years and for nine of those years has been engaged to his partner, who he cannot marry due to the ban on same-sex marriage.

Peter Xing

Science Party

Xing holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Law, and a Masters in Taxation, and now works as a Client Manager at Deloitte. Born in Harbin, China, his family migrated to Australia when he was 7 years old in 1993 and he has since lived in Sydney. An enthusiast for research and development in artificial intelligence and biotechnology, Peter has been helping to grow the futurist and transhumanist community in Australia.

Anthony Michael Ackroyd

The Arts Party

Ackroyd is a well know Australian comedian, speaker and writer. Born in Hobart, at the age of 16 Ackroyd became Australian schoolboy public speaking champion when he won 'Rostrum's Voice of Youth' competition. He was also a Commonwealth debating champion and graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English and European Literature and Philosophy. Ackroyd describes himself as a passionate advocate for the Arts in every form and believes it has tremendous importance both culturally and socially.

Beresford Thomas

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

Thomas was a sickly child, with asthma and debilitating allergies, who lost many weeks of schooling and became the target of school bullies, causing him fear, failure and low self-esteem. At 21, he was diagnosed as psycho-somatic and then followed years of treatment, including 'deep sleep', brain surgery and a 5 hour operation which led to 10 days on a heart-lung machine from which he was not expected to recover. Twenty five years later, at age 51, after attending a local Bible study course and had a life-transforming experience when he discovered who God is and what He had done for him. He says, 'Life started for me that day. I realised that Jesus took my infirmity and bore my sickness, and that by His death on the cross, I was healed.' Since that day, just on 12 years ago, Beresford has wanted to grow in his knowledge of Gods Word, to join with other Christians, and to use his life in service to God. He contested Vaucluse at the 2011 state election.

Malcolm Turnbull

Liberal

Aged 61, Turnbull was variously a journalist, a lawyer, a merchant banker and most publicly the head of the Australian Republican Movement. Turnbull first came to prominence as the brash young barrister who ran rings around the head of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet office while cross examining him in the 'Spycatcher' case, where the UK government was attempting to suppress the memoirs of a former MI5 operative. He later worked as a legal counsel for Kerry Packer, and was involved in the consortium that attempted to buy John Fairfax, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He worked as a merchant banker and also made a fortune as an initial investor in Ozemail, one of the earliest Australian commercial ventures in the internet. Turnbull also led and funded the Australian Republican Movement and negotiated the proposed republican constitution defeated at the 1999 referendum. On the night of the defeat, he described John Howard as the man who broke the nation's heart, but that didn't stop Turnbull becoming a Liberal MP and Minister in the Howard government. How he entered Parliament was controversial, involving a huge branch stack that allowed him to defeat sitting MP Peter King for pre-selection in his seat of Wentworth. Elected in 2004, defeating King's Independent challenge, Turnbull was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister in January 2006 with particular responsibility for water policy. He was elevated to Cabinet in January 2007 as Minister for Environment and Water Resources, where he pressed the Cabinet to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Turnbull was defeated for the Liberal Leadership by Brendan Nelson in 2007, but replaced Nelson as Leader in September 2008. In 2009 Turnbull staked his leadership on a deal with the Rudd government to pass the CPRS legislation, but his party eventually revolted and Turnbull lost the leadership to Tony Abbot by a single vote. Turnbull decided to re-contest Wentworth at the 2010 election after he had initially announced he would retire. He served as Minister for Communications following the election of the Abbott government in 2013 and replaced Abbot as prime Minister in September 2015 after a party room ballot. Turnbull's wife Lucy is the daughter of former Gorton Government Attorney-General and prominent Sydney barrister Tom Hughes. She also served as Lord Mayor of Sydney 2003-4.

Evan Hughes

Labor

Hughes is a Sydney businessman who ran his family firm, the Ray Hughes Gallery, until closing it following the death of his father, Ray. Evan Hughes attended Cranbrook School and joined the Labor Party before studying art history at Cambridge University. Hughes says he remembers handing out Labor how to vote cards in his full school uniform in 1998 for the new Labor Member for Sydney, Tanya Plibersek. In 2014 he co-founded Business with Labor NSW, a policy exchange that aimed to reinvigorate economic discourse between business and the Labor Party.

Marc Aussie-Stone

Independent

78 year-old Marc Aussie-stone has been contesting elections since 1972. He forced a change to the Electoral Act in the 1970s, it becoming illegal to nominate for more than one seat after he nominated for eight electorates at the 1975 election. This is his eigth contest against a Prime Minister, having run against William McMahon (Lowe 1972), Gough Whitlam (Werriwa 1975), Bob Hawke (Wills 1990), Paul Keating (Blaxland 1993, 1996), John Howard (Bennelong 1998) and Julia Gillard (Lalor 2010). He also contested the Bass by-election in 1975, Blaxland by-election in 1996, Werriwa by-election in 2005, and ran against Joe Hockey in North Sydney at the 2007 election. He states he has contested 20 elections, more than any living Australian.

2013 Result

Candidate

Party

Votes

%

Swing

Di Smith

ALP

17,840

19.4

-1.7

Marsha Foxman

PUP

998

1.1

+1.1

Malcolm Turnbull

LIB

58,306

63.3

+3.7

Beresford Thomas

CDP

431

0.5

+0.5

Pat Sheil

IND

1,054

1.1

+0.6

Matthew Robertson

GRN

13,455

14.6

-2.8

....

OTH

0

0.0

-1.3

After Preferences

Di Smith

ALP

29,725

32.3

-2.9

Malcolm Turnbull

LIB

62,359

67.7

+2.9

2013 Result (Post-redistribution)

Candidate/Party

Party

Primary %

2CP %

Liberal Party

LIB

64.6

68.9

Labor

ALP

18.7

31.1

Greens

GRN

14.0

Others

OTH

2.7

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